About a year ago I wrote this post about how to make the most out of your school volunteer efforts. D2 wasn't enrolled in pre-school yet, so at the time I hadn't yet dipped my toe into the volunteer waters. My biggest concern was how I would balance my already full plate with the obligatory service that all schools seem to expect these days.One of the first things I read on the contract to enroll D2 in Montessori's toddler program was that every family was required to contribute 20 volunteer hours or $200 per school year. I told Dr. D. about the Faustian bargain agreement.Well, of course we are just going to pay the $200 bucks, right? Dr. D. thinks this is a non-issue.We don't have time to volunteer, he argues. Let's pay the money and be done with it. I shudder. What will the other parents think of us? What will D2's teachers think? I'm positive we'll be the only parents who choose to write a check. I envision teachers clucking their tongues and classmates' mothers giving me looks of disapproval. That's D2's mother. How sad she can't peel herself away from her job to volunteer a few measly hours a year. No way was I going down like that.I resolve to be the Best School Volunteer. Ever.In hindsight, I should have set my sights a little lower. And therein lies lesson one: If you are a busy parent with limited time, it's easy to be overly ambitious and take on more than you can handle because you want to impress teachers and other parents. But you do yourself no favors by stressing out over what should be a enjoyable activity. Make it easy on yourself by starting small. Most schools are happy to have any level of quality parental involvement because they are focused on parent engagement. I learned a number of other important lessons along the way this year.Only volunteer to do stuff you actually want to do.I know this one is rather obvious. At the beginning of the year parents were given a volunteer sign up sheet with two pages of activities to choose from. I checked the class laundry box (easy) and gardening (WTH was I thinking?). I do not garden at my own home. I am not sure why I thought I would garden at my son's school. Needless to say, when the email notices came around reminding parents about the gardening "opportunities" I always found a way to be busy.Besides, I really don't like dirt that much. I also don't do crafts or crafty stuff but that's another post. Read the rest of this post after the jump: www.bossmomonline.comSee More

We started potty training D2 over the holidays. I agonized about what method to use. Three-day bootcamp method? Gradual method? No method? Ultimately, our pediatrician gave us the best advice, wait until he is ready and you’ll know. You can’t force a child to potty train before he is ready. He’s now at the point where he can wear undies during the day and diapers at night. It’s been a remarkably smooth transition thus far but it got me thinking. There are a lot of leadership lessons you can glean from potty training your little one:Accidents happen. Don’t make a deal about it, just move on. I’ve noticed that when D2 is really engrossed in a project, he’ll forget to go to the bathroom and will pee in his pants. He’ll quickly notice and say, “Pee pee on the floor! Uh, oh!” The reality is that as a leader, you too will have accidents and make mistakes. Learn the lesson and move on.Celebrate small successes. The first time D2 peed in the potty, we celebrated. Stickers on the sticker chart and a big “Hoo Ray!” He loved it. As a leader you need to celebrate your team’s small successes as much as the big ones. In this day of budget cut backs and reduced opportunities for training, don’t underestimate the power of just saying “thank you” or publicly recognizing a job well done. It will go a long way towards building morale on your team.Shit stinks. Clean it up. When D2 first pooped in his little potty, my face nearly melted off. It was so big and so… stinky. After the deed is done, D2 always announces, “Big Poo Poo, yay! Clean up time!” Truer words have never been spoken. As a leader when you find yourself in a mess, don’t let it sit there stinking up the room. Roll up yourselves and get to work. Clean up time!Every day is a new day. What I love about D2 is that at two-years old, he doesn’t dwell on the mistakes of yesterday. Every day is a new day to be approached with wonder and excitement. So what if he pee peed in his pants yesterday? Today is a new day. As leaders we’d do well to remember this. How often do we beat ourselves up over what we coulda should’ve done? Approach every day with the excitement and wonder of a two-year old and see how that transforms your outlook.What do you think? Have you learned anything from your child that you can apply at work?Like what you see? Stop by http://www.bossmomonline.com and leave a comment! See More

If I could only eat one meal a day, it would be breakfast. I love, love breakfast. I love breakfast so much that when I am feeling too lazy to cook dinner, I'll whip up a poached egg and turkey bacon sandwich or (my very favorite) banana pancakes. When the Aunt Jemima Frozen Breakfast team approached me about doing a giveaway, I jumped at the opportunity. I sampled their product last fall at the Blogalicious conference and was impressed that their pancakes were made with real food. I'm talking eggs, milk and flour. Real food and not full of preservatives and stuff I couldn't pronounce. I've not done a lot of giveaways on this site, but promised you that when I found a product (or service) I really liked, I'd share the love. Well, here's your chance! I'm giving away to one lucky reader the following goodies:Ten (10) free coupons for full-sized boxes of Aunt Jemima Frozen Pancakes or WafflesCopy of celebrity chef and Food Network host Aaron McCargo Junior's cook book full of fabulous party and comfort foodOne Aunt Jemima cooking apronOne Aunt Jemima insulated freezer bag, perfect for grocery shopping and keeping your frozen items cool.Aunt Jemima recipe cards full of great meal ideas for busy familiesEntry is simple and you can enter as many times as you like. Subscribe to my feed and leave a comment letting me know you've subscribed as well as what you love to eat for breakfast. Follow me on Twitter and tweet this post. Or follow me on Facebook and leave a comment about your favorite breakfast food. I'll pick one lucky winner on Friday. GPop over to my site to enter. http://www.bossmomonline.com. Good luckSee More

Burned out from Black Friday? Sick of Cyber Monday? Hard to believe but just in the last few days consumers spent nearly $11 billion on electronics, clothing and other items in preparation for the holidays. Now, I love shopping just as much as the next girl but wouldn't it be great to funnel some of your hard earned cash towards a gift that will keep on giving? A few years back, my family and I started a tradition of making charitable donations to our favorite causes in lieu of gifts. We are not alone. Many families are now looking for ways to celebrate the true meaning and spirit of Christmas by doing for others.Over the next few weeks leading up to Christmas, I am going to highlight a few causes that are near and dear to my heart. I am particularly passionate about anti-poverty, fair housing and global maternal/child health initiatives so many of my donations support these causes.First up on my list is the fabulous charity Heifer International. Heifer's mission is a simple one: to end hunger and poverty and care for the earth. They do this by creating sustainable strategies to help impoverished families develop an income stream while caring for the environment. Here's what's cool. As a donor, you can "purchase" a cow, a flock of geese, a goat, chicks, or a bee keeping starter kit among other gifts which which will be given to a family who will receive training and support to improve their livelihood. Heifer even produces a nifty gift catalogue which you can browse and then select your gift to honor a loved one. And lest you think your donation needs to be large to make a difference, think again. A gift of a flock of chicks is just $20.00 and will not only provide one family with nutritious egg protein but a steady income stream. According to Heifer, a good hen can lay up to 200 eggs per year - great for feeding a family and provide plenty to sell.Heifer International operates around the world from Eastern Europe to the Carribbean and in countries such as Haiti, Uganda, and Tanzania. What I love about this organization is that their philosophy is focused on sustainability -- creating enduring sources of income to lift families out of poverty all while caring for our fragile eco-system in a socially responsible manner. This is truly a gift that will make a difference. Like what you see? Visit me at http://www.bossmomonline.com I'd love to hear from you.See More

Crockpot Porridge from the Eat Clean Diet CookbookEarlier this month, I resolved to accept the realities of my slowing metabolism, clean up my diet and lose the tummy pooch I gained from my pregnancy with D2. Armed with Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet Cookbook and a copy of Clean Eating Magazine, I’ve been working on changing my family’s diet by weeding out white sugar, white flour and incorporating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables into our meals. Because I love to cook and we’ve always eaten relatively healthily, it hasn’t been as big of a change as I thought. The biggest challenge has been breaking our (my) addiction to carbohydrates and sugar. I’ve been pleasantly surprised that all of the recipes I’ve made thus far have left me feeling satisfied and without the normal carb jones that I get from eating certain meals. Bonus? I’m feeling much more clear-headed and energetic. I truly feel that the food I’m eating now is fueling my body and not just filling it up. Here are a few recipes I’ve tried this week.This recipe for Crockpot Porridge from Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet Cook book and companion website is my new favorite breakfast. It’s super fast to make and is very tasty. I eat it with a side of scrambled egg whites and it keeps me feeling full until late morning.Cook’s notes: Keep an eye on this dish and stir frequently as some crock pots cook faster than others. Also, I couldn’t find rye flakes at my local Whole Foods so I substituted bulgar and also added a dash of cinnamon. I’ve made this dish now with both milk and almond milk and both versions were very tasty. You can whip up a batch of this cereal and then refrigerate and store in a tupperware container for up to a week. To reheat, simply add a little milk or water and then heat for 1-2 minutes. Fab!Crock Pot Porridge• 1/2 cup / 120 ml cracked wheat• 1 1/2 cup / 335 ml steel cut oats• 1/2 cup / 120 ml rye flakes• 1/2 cup / 120 ml brown rice• 1/4 cup / 60 ml wheat germ• 6 1/2 cups / 1.5 L water or any combination of liquids including water, rice milk, soy milk, almond milk, goats milk and/or water to equal 6 1/2 cups• 1/2 cup / 120 ml raisins• 1/2 cup / 120 ml chopped dates (or other dried fruit like cranberries or raisins)• 1 1/2 tbsp / 22 ml best-quality vanilla• Pinch nutmegPreparationPlace all ingredients in a 3-quart-or-greater crock-pot. Stir well to combine all ingredients. Cover.Set on lowest cooking temperature and cook overnight. If your crock-pot cooking time is set by length of cooking time, set for the longest cooking time and lowest heat.Spoon into cereal bowls in the morning and serve piping hot!Read the rest of this post and share your thoughts at: http://www.bossmomonline.comSee More

I don't know what it is about October but it has been one hellacious month. My days have been packed full of meetings and nearly every project that's on my plate is in high gear. I'm also traveling every weekend this month which means I spend Thurdays and Friday nights frantically packing as well as prepping Dr. D. to watch D2 over the weekend. To add to it all, D2 has been sick nearly every week since starting nursery school. This week an ear infection that I thought was cleared up is back again. Typically, I'm the one to take D2 to the pediatrician when he's sick. This week though I've been pulling long hours in the office and I'm currently in the midst of my team's annual marketing retreat. D2 woke up this morning cranky and congested. I knew he was going to have to go to the pediatrician but Dr. D. was in clinic all day and not only did I have my retreat going on, I had an executive team meeting I needed to be at to discuss critical headcount and budget issues. Crap. I called D2's nanny Eva this morning at 6am and asked her if she could take him to the pediatrician. Between meetings, I called the clinic and got an late morning appointment for D2. The appointment went fine. D2's going to be fine. He does indeed have another ear infection and will need to take an antibiotic for the next ten days. Eva explained all of this over the phone to me during another break between meetings. Great. Baby taken care of. Check.Then it hit me. Click on the link to read more and leave a comment. http://www.bossmomonline.comSee More

About a week ago I was picking D2 up from the half-day toddler program at Montessori and just making chit chat with his teacher. I asked her how he was doing. "He's doing great" she tells me, "but he keeps asking for someone named Eva. Who takes care of him in the afternoon?" I tell her Eva is his nanny who has been with our family since he was two and half months old. She looks at me sympathetically, head cocked to the side and says, "He asks for her all the time." I say well he's very attached to her. From my point of view it's no big deal. But all of a sudden I started feeling just a bit defensive. I've since started to notice that D2 asks for Eva a lot these days. On the weekends, which she has off, he pretends to call her on the phone. When she leaves for the day, he'll ask me in toddler-speak where she is, "Eva car?" "Eva outside?". Any time he sees a red Toyota Corolla he thinks it's her. For some reason this attachment doesn't bother me that much but Dr. D. has given me the hairy eyeball more than once on this issue. Occasionally, he'll needle me and say something like, " I wonder if I ask D2 who his mother is what he'll say?" or "Do you think D2 knows you are his mother?" My answer is always the same. Don't be silly, of course he knows I'm his mother. Stupid question. But then I get that little voice of doubt in the back of my head. He knows, right? Read more and share your thoughts here: http://bit.ly/q2J3GWSee More

Last weekend I watched the hilarious comedy Bridesmaids. Besides being a side-splittingly funny view of two best friends' (one the bride and the other the maid of honor) adventures in wedding planning, there was a serious message about jealousy. The protagonist, who is asked by her BFF to be her maid of honor, struggles to balance her feelings of failure after her cake business goes belly up with her friend's excitement about getting married. Her obvious envy and insecurity makes her do crazy and ultimately hurtful things that threaten her friendship with the bride to be. Most of us like to think we are too mature to experience jealousy but even the most evolved among us can have bouts of it when we least expect it. I can remember a very clear incident of jealousy for me. When I was a manager working at a PR firm in New York my sole goal at the time was to land an international assignment in one of our Asian offices. It was my dream. I did everything "right". I made sure I had visibility among the right senior leaders; I landed plumb assignments on some of our biggest and most profitable client accounts, and every performance review I let my interest in an international assignment be known. The gut punch came when a good friend and colleague of mine, who had less tenure than me at the firm, landed an assignment in China. I was beside myself. How in the hell did he get that assignment? What made him more qualified than me? While outwardly I was happy for him (and he was very qualified for the position to be fair), inside I seethed and raged that I wasn't chosen. I was flat out jealous. I stayed pissed off for a couple of weeks. Then somewhere along the way I pulled myself together and got down to work. I took my fate into my own hands and decided I wasn't going to wait around for someone else to help me to fulfill a dream I had for many years. I started interviewing at other firms and looking at international teaching opportunities. At the encouragement of a good friend, I took the Foreign Service exam to become a Foreign Service Officer with the US Department of State. To my shock and delight I passed the exam and was invited to Washington DC to interview. Ironically, while I was in the midst of the interview process and mentally preparing to quit my job, the CEO of the APAC region of my firm called me and asked me if I'd be willing to take a two-year assignment in Shanghai. After much deliberation, I accepted the position. That moment taught me a powerful lesson about jealousy and the way it can hang like a dark cloud overhead if you allow it. For me the turning point came when I recognized that I could do something about how I was feeling. The question for you is how can you put your feelings of jealousy into perspective and make them work for you? Here are a few things I've learned: Read more after the jump: www.bossmomonline.comSee More

I've got #2 on the brain. Not that number two. I'm talking baby number two. It's not a coincidence because lately it seems everyone is wondering if I'll have a second baby. I find this questioning only slightly less invasive than having my belly felt up when I was pregnant. D2 turns two in November and whenever anyone asks me how old he is, it's always followed up with, "So are you going to give him a little brother or sister?" Last week at the salon my stylist put it much more bluntly, "So what's the story, are we having a second baby or what?" *Gulp. Silence.* Heads swivled to look at me as I choked out the standard "We're practicing!"line. Sheesh. What do I say to such a personal question? My uterus has barely snapped back into place and already the questions are flying. I've been saying that we really would like to give D2 a sibling if we can. Actually, I sort of feel that we are obligated to do so because we are older parents. When D2 turns 20 we'll be 60. When he's 40 we'll be .... oh God, I don't even want to think about it. This sounds morbid but I fear that we'll die and leave him alone while he's still a relatively young man. I think about my anxiety over possibly having another miscarriage, which I experienced before I had D2. It's a tough emotional journey that many women don't talk about - and it's exceedingly common. I think about the letters AMA (Advanced Maternal Age) that will be scrawled across my chart that let everyone know at the OB/GYN that you are officially past your prime but some how your eggs have managed to hang on for the last call at the bar. (Quick side bar: Ignore the B.S. lies you read in tabloids about 40 something celebrities and their claims they got pregnant "naturally" even though they are pumping out fraternal twins at alarming rates. There is no f@$*^!g way. Not Judging. Just saying.) I think of all of the pros and cons of having a second child. Read more here and leave a comment: http://www.bossmomonline.comSee More